MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

TODD DOUGLAS

As accusations of police misconduct and racial bias increasingly dominate the media, The Police in a Free Society: Safeguarding Rights While Enforcing the Law takes an unflinching look at the police, the communities they serve, and the politicians who direct them. Author Todd Douglas, a veteran state police commander, exposes the occurrences of police misconduct and incompetence as well as incidences of charlatans who intentionally inflame racial tensions with the police for their own political or financial gain.

Readers will better understand what police officers must deal with on a daily basis, grasp the role of lawmakers in keeping faith with the public, and appreciate the tremendous challenges that police leaders face in attempting to reverse recent trends and shore up public confidence in police officers. This is a rare glimpse into the often-ugly reality of what happens on America's streets, with insights gained from the perspective of the cop and suspect alike.

Praeger. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Califomla • Denver, Colorado. 2017. 298p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson

The U.S. crime rate has dropped steadily for more than a decade, yet the rate of incarceration continues to skyrocket. Today, more than 2 million Americans are locked in prisons and jails with devastating consequences for poor families and communities, overcrowded institutions and overburdened taxpayers. How did the U.S. become the world′s leader in incarceration? Why have the numbers of women, juveniles, and people of color increased especially rapidly among the imprisoned?

The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America, Second Edition is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.

Features of this text:

• Critical Approach. Debunks myths about crime in the U.S., challenges many current anticrime policies that became harsher in the 1990s, and illuminates the political implications of crime and punishment.

• Contemporary. Updated throughout with particular attention to Chapter 5, "Crime in the Media," including research and analyses of crime in the news, crime as entertainment, and the interplay of news media, entertainment, and crime.

• Comprehensive Research. Draws on a wide range of scholarship, including research on crime′s representation in political discourse and the mass media, public opinion, crime-related activism, and public policy.

• Consistent and Accessible. A great source to communicate new research to both non-specialists and specialists in accessible language with riveting, real-life examples.

Intended as a supplement for use in any criminal justice or criminology course, especially in the punishment, corrections and policy areas, The Politics of Injustice, Second Edition will appeal to those who take a critical approach to crime issues.

Pine Forge Press. Thousand Oakls, Califoria. 2000. 201p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Herman Goldstein

In his seminal work on problem-oriented policing, Herman Goldstein emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes of crime and disorder within communities. Goldstein’s book provides a framework for law enforcement agencies to shift their focus from reactive responses to proactive measures aimed at preventing recurring issues.

The core concept of problem-oriented policing lies in identifying specific problems within a community, analyzing the underlying factors contributing to those problems, and developing tailored strategies to mitigate them. By working collaboratively with community members, local organizations, and other stakeholders, law enforcement can implement sustainable solutions that address the root causes of crime and disorder.

Goldstein’s book serves as a guide for police departments looking to adopt a more proactive and community-centered approach to policing. By encouraging officers to engage with the community, gather data on recurring issues, and implement evidence-based strategies, problem-oriented policing offers a promising alternative to traditional law enforcement practices.

Overall, Herman Goldstein’s book on problem-oriented policing provides valuable insights and practical tools for law enforcement agencies seeking to build safer and more resilient communities through proactive problem-solving strategies.

NY. McGraw-Hill. 1990. 221p.

Rand Corp.

In recent years, a number of serious conflicts between police officers and members of the communities they serve have raised the importance of effective community-police relations in the United States. Building on its policing and community-based participatory research portfolio, RAND designed a community-based dialogue to address this problem. The dialogue is designed to start a conversation about these issues among community stakeholders, including police, government agencies, social service providers, resident representatives, and other concerned organizations. RAND has also designed a youth-focused dialogue to address specific scenarios most relevant to youth-police interactions.

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Edited by Marcus Felson and Ronald V. Clarke

Business should become a central theme in criminology and crime prevention should become a core concern among business leaders.Contributors to Business and Crime Prevention include academic criminologists, representatives of the British Home Office, security industry experts, insurance data analysts, and consultants to the retail and telecommunications industries. The authors discuss crime prevention initiatives now underway in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Holland and the US.

Criminal Justice Press, Jan 1, 1997 , 293 pages

By  Kate Bowers , Lisa Tompson and Shane D. Johnson

In many disciplines, there is a wealth of primary evaluation research on what works, and systematic reviews that synthesize that evidence. This is, of course, extremely positive. However, the sheer scale of the information and the way in which it is indexed and presented can mean that it is difficult for practitioners to locate the best available evidence. For this reason, in health, education, and other disciplines, using techniques from information science, researchers have systematically assembled databases such as those hosted on healthevidence.org and educationendowmentfoundation.org which bring together the most reliable evidence. Hitherto, no such database has existed for crime and criminal justice interventions. This article sets out some of the challenges and early findings of one exercise which aims to produce such a database, being completed as part of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction initiative in collaboration with the College of Policing. 

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Volume 17, 2023

By Neil Donnelly and Sara Rahman

To understand whether the introduction of penalty notices in New South Wales (NSW) for first time low, special and novice range drink-driving and drug-driving offences reduced the number of court appearances and increased the certainty of licence sanctions for these offences. Data was obtained from the NSW Police Force’s Computerised Operational Policing System (COPS) for all first time low, special and novice range exceed the prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA) incidents and first time drug-driving incidents occurring between 5 December 2016 to 1 March 2020. We used a combination of interrupted time series analysis, and descriptive analysis respectively to determine the changes in CANs and dismissals post-reform. We used logistic regression to identify significant correlates of receiving a penalty notice among the first time PCA and drug-driving offenders in our sample. The introduction of penalty notices significantly reduced the number of CANs issued for first time low, special and novice range PCA offences by 81.0%, or 4,779 fewer CANs than predicted. For first time drug-driving there was a significant, though smaller (29.8%) reduction in CANs (or 1,118 fewer CANs issued). These changes also translated into decreases in court dismissals and conditional discharges. Among first time low, special and novice range PCA offenders, the percentage receiving a court dismissal or conditional discharge decreased from 51.5% to 8.0% while among first time drug-driving offenders it decreased from 28.0% to 15.2%. Among both first time low, special and novice range PCA offenders and drug-driving offenders, having no concurrent offences and no prior proceedings to court in the previous 5 years predicted receipt of a penalty notice. The smaller reduction in court appearances for drug-driving was primarily due to those charged with this offence having more concurrent and prior offences. The introduction of penalty notices significantly reduced the number of court appearances for first time low, special and novice range PCA offences and to a lesser extent, first time drug-driving offences, and decreased the percentage of offenders who received a court dismissal or conditional discharge for these offences.

Sydney:  NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2023. 22p.

By Lisa Fedina; Rich Tolman; Todd Herrenkohl

This paper addresses gaps in available prevalence data on campus sexual assault rates found among women, including demographic differences among student groups and variations in characteristics of college campuses. The research study also investigated how attitudes and norms vary across college campuses and whether characteristics of those campuses can help explain variations in experiences at the individual (student) level, by analyzing data from the Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduates (SAPU) online sexual assault prevention education program. Data from SAPU includes a large, demographically diverse sample of college students, which allows for in-depth investigation of the prevalence and predictors of sexual assault victimization and perpetration across different types of college campuses; it also includes contemporaneous measures of sexual assault victimization and perpetration during the highest period of risk, early in students’ first year of college. The five stated aims of the research study were: to examine variation in school-level prevalence of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by school type, size, and region from academic year (AY) 2016-2017 to 2019-2020; to assess subgroup differences in school-level prevalence of sexual assault victimization and perpetration, accounting for school region, size, and type; to investigate the relationship between attitudes and perceptions of campus norms and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration, accounting for precampus sexual assault and individual demographics and school characteristics; to examine the variation in the relationship between attitudes and perceptions of campus norms and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by subgroups, accounting for precampus sexual assault and individual and school characteristics; and to examine variation in bystander intentions, efficacy, and behaviors and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by subgroups, accounting for attitudes, perceptions of campus norms, and precampus sexual assault, as well as individual and school characteristics. 

Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2024. 20p.

By Ira P. Robbins

The law of burglary has long played a vital role in protecting hearth and home. Because of the violation of one’s personal space, few crimes engender more fear than burglary; thus, the law should provide necessary safety and security against that fear. Among other things, current statutes aim to deter trespassers from committing additional crimes by punishing them more severely based on their criminal intent before they execute their schemes. Burglary law even protects domestic violence victims against abusers who attempt to invade their lives and terrorize them. However, the law of burglary has expanded and caused so many problems that some commentators now argue for its elimination. Given broad discretion, prosecutors use burglary to over-punish a wide variety of offenses. The law can even encompass mere instances of shoplifting. Additionally, by punishing perpetrators before they accomplish their target crimes, burglary law often acts as a general law of attempts. Much of the law’s expansion stems from adding the word “remaining” to many burglary statutes. This inclusion allows burglary convictions in circumstances in which a perpetrator enters a structure legally, but then “remains unlawfully.” While this language has led to confusion among courts and legislatures about the scope of burglary, there is scant legal literature addressing this confusion. Scholars have yet to untangle the conflicting interpretations of unlawful remaining, and legislatures have failed to provide guidance that captures the nuances of burglary law. This Article unravels the complexities of burglary law and proposes a model statute that retains burglary law for its protective purposes, while also considering its problematic expansion.

UC Davis Law Review, vol. 57, February 2024

By: Kesha Moore, Ryan Tom, Jackie O’Neil

Promoting public safety is serious business and requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger.

We model the contextual analysis of crime data needed to guide an effective approach to improving public safety.

Unsubstantiated crime narratives prevent us from understanding the factors contributing to recent increases in violent crime and undermine our investments in evidence-based solutions. Misdiagnosing the causes of crime compromises public safety, similar to when a doctor misdiagnoses you with the wrong ailment and subsequently prescribes medication that fails to address your underlying issues while exacerbating your condition.

Politicians have lobbed disparaging attacks against criminal justice reforms despite contradictory evidence. Public officials, regardless of party affiliation, create fear-mongering narratives about why crimes are happening to convince the public that their strategy is correct. Whether it is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) incorrectly arguing that crime would increase without aggressive prosecutors and increased police funding, or New York City’s Democratic Mayor, Eric Adams, blaming the city’s bail reforms for increases in crime, public actors disparage criminal justice reforms based on false and inaccurate premises. These political actors engage in this rhetoric despite research studies proving their assertions are flatly wrong. This rhetoric leads to harmful and counterproductive policies that aim to increase policing and incarceration, which particularly harm Black people. Unfortunately, the pattern of peddling harmful “tough-on-crime” narratives is not new, but a cyclical component of U.S. history.

Promoting public safety is serious business that requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger. Crime is a complex and varied phenomenon, and solutions to address crime must be grounded in data, equity, and fairness. The need for accurate assessments is critical, lest false narratives and distorted data contribute to the harming of communities by law enforcement, just as they did in the War on Drugs. Here, we examine three false narratives presented by politicians and the media to explain the recent increase in homicides nationwide: the expansion of bail reform, practices of progressive prosecutors, and calls to defund the police. Our analysis reveals that the empirical data contradicts these narratives. Our data substantiates other reasons for a spike in homicide rates: pandemic-induced instability and econmic inequality.

Washington, DC: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 2020. 41p.

By Trine Filges, Mette Verner, Else Ladekjær, Elizabeth Bengtsen

Background: Healthy after‐school activities such as participation in organised sport have been shown to serve as important resources for reducing school failure and other problem/high‐risk behaviour. It remains to be established to what extent organised sport participation has positive impacts on young people in unstable life circumstances. Objectives: What are the effects of organised sport on risk behaviour, personal, emotional and social skills of young people, who either have experienced or are at‐risk of experiencing an adverse outcome? Search Methods: The database searches were carried out in March 2023 and other sources were searched in May 2023. We searched to identify both published and unpublished literature. Selection Criteria: The intervention was participation in leisure time organised sport. Young people between 6 and 18 years of age, who either have experienced or are at‐risk of experiencing an adverse outcome were eligible. Primary outcomes were problem/high‐risk behaviour and a secondary outcomes social and emotional outcomes. Studies that used a control group were eligible for. Studies that utilised qualitative approaches were not. Data Collection and Analysis: The number of potentially relevant studies was 43,716. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Only seven studies could be used in the data synthesis. Five studies were judged to have a critical risk of bias and were excluded from the meta‐analysis. One study did not report data that enabled the calculation of effect sizes and standard errors. Meta‐analyses were conducted on each conceptual outcome separately. All analyses were inverse variance weighted using random effects statistical models. Main Results: Two studies were from Canada, one from Australia, and the remaining from the USA. The timespan of the interventions was 23 years, from 1995 to 2018. The median number of participants analysed was 316, and the median number of controls was 452. A number of primary outcomes were reported but each in a single study only. Concerning secondary outcomes, two studies reported the effect on overall psychosocial adjustment at post‐intervention. The standardised mean difference was 0.70 (95% CI 0.28–1.11). There was a small amount of heterogeneity. Three studies reported on depressive symptoms at 0–3 years follow‐up. The standardised mean difference was 0.02 (95% CI −0.01 to 0.06). There was no heterogeneity between the three studies. In addition, a number of other secondary outcomes were reported each in a single study only. Authors' Conclusions: There were too few studies included in the meta‐analyses in order for us to draw any conclusion. The dominance of Northern America clearly limiting the generalisability of the findings. The majority of the studies were not considered to be of overall high quality and the process of excluding studies with critical risk of bias from the meta‐analysis applied in this review left us with only 7 of a total of 13 possible studies to synthesise. Further, because too few studies reported results on the same type of outcome, at most three studies could be combined in a particular meta‐analysis and no meta‐analysis could be performed on any of the primary outcomes.

Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2024;20:e1381.

By Roger Jarjoura; Christina LiCalsi; Melissa Yisak; Lauren Stargel; Amelia Auchstetter

The current study presents implementation and impact findings of a cluster randomized control trial examining a school-wide restorative practices model called Circle Forward. Overall, the study team found implementation of Circle Forward generally was happening as intended in the intervention schools. The Tier 1 training occurred as planned and the circles that staff were implementing in schools fit the CF model both in terms of format and expected behavior. The one implementation area that was lower than expected were staff attendance rates at the Tier 1 training. Previous research has indicated that multi-tiered professional development is important for implementation of restorative practices, including initial Tier 1 training that is school-wide and covers basic restorative principles to build knowledge and buy in. Each intervention school had a dedicated group of RLT members who implemented circles, planned professional development about circles, provided ongoing support for implementation, and helped encourage staff to use circles in their classrooms. With support from RLT staff as well as knowledge gained from the Tier 1 training, staff could create avenues for students to share their thoughts. Often, school staff implemented advisory circles with their students, which encouraged them to connect with others by voicing their opinions and discussing personal and nonacademic topics. Through this process, students also learned more about their peers and teachers and developed stronger relationships. In turn, these positive staff-student relationships and relationships between students helped build a positive, inclusive classroom climate. This finding is consistent with earlier research describing teacher and student perspectives in Tier 1 circle implementation and how it created space for student ownership and voice, as well as the clear connection to broader social-emotional learning. Further, others have indicated the importance of explicitly considering student participation and inclusion as a basic indicator of restorative practices implementation.

Arlington, VA: American Institutes for Research, 2023. 47p.

By Mike Males

California is not “defunding the police” nor implementing lenient criminal justice reforms – just the opposite. State spending on law enforcement has risen sharply, even after adjustments for inflation and population growth. The odds of being imprisoned per arrest have risen to near-record heights. However, despite record spending on California law enforcement agencies in recent years, one of the core measures of law enforcement effectiveness— crime clearance rates — has fallen to historically low levels. An agency’s clearance rate is the share of Part I violent and property crimes2 that are considered solved after law enforcement makes an arrest. Over the past three decades, these clearance rates fell by 41%, from a 22.3% clearance rate in 1990 to 13.2% in 2022, which equates to fewer than one in seven crimes solved (Figure 1, Table 1). California’s decline in overall clearance rates has been driven by falling property felony clearances (-59%), though the solve rate for violent felonies also fell during the 1990 – 2022 period (-14%).

San Francisco, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. 2024, 8pg

By Justin Nix, Jessica Huff

Many U.S. cities witnessed both de-policing and increased crime in 2020, yet whether the former con-tributed to the latter remains unclear. Indeed, much of what is known about the effects of proactive policing on crime comes from studies that evaluated highly focused interventions atypical of day-to-day policing,used cities as the unit of analysis, or could not rule out endogeneity. This study addresses each of these issues,thereby advancing the evidence base concerning the effects of policing on crime. Leveraging two exogenous shocks presented by the onset of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and social unrest after the mur-der of George Floyd, we evaluated the effects of sudden and sustained reductions in high-discretion policing on crime at the neighborhood level in Denver, Colorado.Multilevel models accounting for trends in prior police activity, neighborhood structure, seasonality, and popu-lation mobility revealed mixed results. On the one hand,large-scale reductions in stops and drug-related arrests were associated with significant increases in violentThis is an open access article under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivsLicense, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made and property crimes, respectively. On the other hand,fewer disorder arrests did not affect crime. These results were not universal across neighborhoods. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of debates concerning the appropriate role of policing in the 21st century.

United States, Criminology. 2023, 16pg

By Duane Stanton Sr.1 , Nicholas Lovrich, David Makin, Mary Stohr, Dale Willits, Craig Hemmens and Mikala Meize

In 2012, Washington State legalized recreational cannabis. The challenge of policing cannabis-related motor vehicle operator impairment emerged as an issue in the wake of legalization. There has been less focus on exploring the topic of boating under the influence (BUI), which is regrettable given the popularity of boating. The National Association of State Boating Law Administrators and the National Safe Boating Council (NASBLA), in concert with the U.S. Coast Guard, have identified cannabis-impaired boating as a major problem and are using resources from the Sports Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund to address it. To explore this topic, we conducted 17 semi-structured qualitative interviews with local and state law enforcement marine officers and their supervisors and trainers in Washington, as well as NASBLA-certified BUI trainers. These interviews explored the marine officers’ experiences since legalization, as well as their perceptions of marijuana legalization on public safety. Results drawn from the interviews indicate that marine officers are very concerned about the threats to public safety and responsible boating practices arising from cannabis-impaired boating and feel that enhanced training and funding is needed to better detect impairment and enforce BUI laws. Public policy, police training, and best practices implications arising from these interviews are discussed.

American Journal of Qualitative Research August 2020, Vol.4 No. 2, pp. 1-19,

Edited By: Candice Carter, Raj Kumar Dhungana

This book advances knowledge about the implementation of peace and non-violence strategies in education that counter violence. Addressing both hidden and direct violence, it examines the harm to wellbeing and learning through a unique exploration of the role of teachers, and confronts the roots of violence in educational settings. Presenting and critiquing a range of pedagogical tools, case examples, and research, it examines how various methods can be used for identifying and proactively responding to conflicts such as injustice, discrimination, and prejudice, among others. Contributors present case studies from a range of global contexts and offer cutting-edge research on the applications of these resources, and how they contextualize peace education. An essential read for educators, teacher educators and peace scholars, it crucially offers pathways for confronting and healing from violence in both formal and informal sites of education.

New York: Routledge, 2023. 340p.

By Ralph Rector, David Muhlhausen and Dexter Ingram

One of President Bill Clinton's priorities when taking office was to put 100,000 additional police officers on America's streets to help fight crime. On September 13, 1994, the President signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (P.L. 103-322), authorizing the Attorney General to implement a six-year, $8.8 billion grant program to enable state and local law enforcement agencies to hire or redeploy 100,000 additional officers for community policing efforts.11 Attorney General Janet Reno announced the establishment of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in October 1994 to administer these grants. Since then, the COPS program has developed into a set of different federal grants that had cost American taxpayers $7.5 billion by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2000.12 It is reasonable for policymakers, community leaders, and taxpayers to question how effective the COPS program has been in meeting its objective of placing 100,000 additional police officers on the street.13 As recently as August 14, 2000, President Clinton reaffirmed this objective and then took credit for having succeeded in placing "more than 100,000 new community police officers" on the streets14 (though in congressional testimony, the COPS Office sometimes redefines the objective of the program to be the funding of 100,000 officers).15 This objective has been closely tied to the overarching goal of reducing crime.16 To meet this objective, it is reasonable to expect COPS grants to be targeted to the communities most plagued by violent crime. At a fundamental level, the issue of whether or not the COPS program has indeed achieved its goals can be addressed by analyzing two assertions: 1. More Police. Many of the supporters of the COPS initiative assert that its grants are responsible for adding 100,000 police officers to community patrols. To test for the accuracy of this assertion, Heritage analysts estimated the number of new police. 2. Lower Crime. Supporters also assert that the COPS program awarded grants to the communities with the greatest need. Heritage analysts tested the accuracy of this assertion by examining awards in terms of per capita population and crime rates. Confounding the goal of putting 100,000 additional police officers on the street is the possibility that recipients will supplant the funds--substitute funds from one source for another. In the case of COPS grants, supplanting occurs when state and local governments use program funds to hire officers they would have hired using their own money if the COPS program did not exist.17 In the 1994 Crime Act, Congress specifically prohibited states and local governments from using federal funds to supplant local funds.18 Determining whether supplanting has in fact occurred is necessary for the effectiveness of the program to be evaluated accurately. How well the Justice Department has allocated the COPS funding can be discerned by analyzing crime rates and population sizes for communities that received the grants, as well as by observing the concentration of grants among law enforcement agencies. Thus, determining whether the COPS grants went primarily to communities that have high violent crime rates, rather than to safer communities, is important to the analysis. To answer these questions, Heritage analysts first combined U.S. Department of Justice data on the COPS grants that have been awarded to police agencies across the country with data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports on violent crime, officer employment, and population. This merged micro-database makes possible an analysis of crime rates and COPS grants on an agency-by-agency basis.

Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation, 2000, 28p.

By Alexander Landry, James Druckman, and Robb Willer

Recent, high-profile acts of partisan violence have stimulated interest among academics and the general public in the etiology of support for such violence. Here, Landry, Druckman, and Willer report results of an exploratory study that (1) measures support for partisan violence with both abstract items (e.g., general support for partisan violence) and support for more specific acts (e.g., support for a partisan motivated shooting), (2) follows recently established best practices by including attention checks to attenuate response bias, and (3) incorporates measures of a wide range of potential confounders as control variables. Across three data collections (total N = 2,003), including two with nationally representative samples, and tracking seven unique operationalizations of support for the use of violence against out-partisans, they find the most consistent and typically largest relationships with an individual’s reported “need for chaos” (e.g., agreement with statements like: “Sometimes I just feel like destroying beautiful things”) and the extent to which they dehumanize supporters of the opposing party. The researchers speculate this reflects a motivation to use extreme methods (need for chaos) toward one’s political rivals, liberated from the moral restraints that inhibit harming fellow human beings (dehumanization). System justification and social dominance orientation were also both positively related to support for partisan violence, which may reflect partisans’ desire to protect their preferred social order from out-partisans deemed to threaten it. Collectively, these results offer a framework for future research on support for partisan violence, highlighting the role of extreme orientations toward society and rival partisans.

Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research,  Northwestern University, 2023. 56p

By Felipe Gonçalves, Elisa Jácome, and Emily Weisburst

How does immigration enforcement affect public safety? Heightened enforcement could reduce crime by deterring and incapacitating immigrant offenders or, alternatively, increase crime by discouraging victims from reporting offenses. The researchers study the U.S. Secure Communities program, which expanded interior enforcement against unauthorized immigrants. Using national survey data, they find that the program reduced the likelihood that Hispanic victims reported crimes to police and increased the victimization of Hispanics. Total reported crimes are unchanged, masking these opposing effects. The researchers provide evidence that reduced Hispanic reporting is the key driver of increased victimization. Their findings underscore the importance of trust in institutions as a central determinant of public safety.

Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research,  Northwestern University, 2024. 95p.

By Beth Redbird and Kat Albrecht

Racial disparity in arresting behavior is a significant concern for people of color. It also delegitimizes law enforcement, increases tension between police and citizens, and can even increase crime. Efforts at police reform stall, in part because racial disparity in policing was previously unmeasurable. The authors present three new measures of racial disparity in arrest, measured across more than 13,000 agencies nationwide, allowing for reliable analysis of disparity across time and geographic space. These measures are validated against Department of Justice law enforcement misconduct investigations, the “gold standard” for assessing racial disparity in policing.

Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research,  Northwestern University, 2020. 48p.